1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a lottery game, and more particularly to a lottery game in which the player selects a plurality of positions within a geometric figure and in which some of the positions in the figure are subsequently populated with indicia.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many governments and/or gaming organizations sponsor wagering games known as lotteries. A typical lottery game entails players selecting permutations or combinations of numbers. This is followed by a “draw,” wherein the lottery randomly selects a combination or permutation of numbered balls. Prizes are awarded based on the number of matches between a player's selection and the drawn numbers. The drawn numbers are then well-publicized, and large-jackpot lotteries are popular throughout the world.
Lotteries have become an important source of income to governments as they shoulder much of the financial burden for education and other programs. However, as governments have grown more dependent on and increased the use of lotteries, it has become a challenge to sustain public interest therein and maintain the desired level of game participation. One approach to invigorating lottery sales is to expand game content beyond traditional combination/permutation games in the hope that the new games will help keep current players, as well as draw in new players.
One method to enhance game play is to change game indicia from simple alphanumeric characters to other pictures and images. It is known to use pictures or other game indicia in the lottery game to create a unique prize structure. However, most of the variable game indicia lotteries still rely upon a matching of game indicia and drawn indicia to determine a prize through the correspondent level of matching.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a lottery game that allows winning based upon more than simple number or symbol matching. Further, such lottery game should allow a variable prize structure that is greater than that permitted by pure matching of sets of symbols. It is thus to such an improved lottery game that the present invention is primarily directed.